Born Today November 9: Ed Wynn

1886-1966

Born Isaiah Edwin Leopold in Philadelphia--passed on the 19th of June in Los Angeles.  The above photo is him in character as "Mr. Busybody" a vaudeville act in 1908.  

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Interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery.

Even in death he remained a funny man!

Not So Silent Wierdness Also Born Today

Hedy Lamarr Austrian Born 1914-2000

Official Hedy Lammar Website

Ashes scattered by her son in her native Austria and given an honorary grave in Vienna's Central Cemetery.

Born Today November 8: June Havoc

1912-2010

Either born Ellen Evangeline Hovick or Ellen June Hovick (probably the later) on November 8 (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada).  She was famous for being pushed into vaudevillian work, along with her sister, by an over-bearing mother.  Eventually, she and her sister, who was famous as Gypsy Rose Lee went on to fame in different, but related lines of work.  Her acting career is known from the 1940's, but she appears in two Harold Lloyd film as a child, both dating from 1918. They are: On The Jump and Hey There; both films feature Bebe Daniels and Snub Pollard.  In both films, she was billed as June Hovick ("The Child").  She was not in another film until 1942, when she was nearing her 30th birthday.  In the time between she had been a stage actress, toiled as a model, danced in chorus lines and finally, made her big stage debut on Broadway.   She had also become a mother (her daughter would eventually also do some acting).  Her return to film in 1942 came in the Ray Bolger film Four Jacks and a Jill made for RKO.  Her acting career took off from there.  She didn't move formally to the west coast until the late 1940's (and reportedly never really like it there), but here and her sister both still had to contend with their grasping mother in their lives until her death in 1954.  Her constant threats of suing them was gone and both sisters turned to writing (this would eventually cause trouble between the two).  By this time, she was already working in television, having made her debut in 1950 episode of This Is Show Business.  For younger a generation, it is her television work for which she is remembered.  She appeared in all types of television: from drama to horror, children's shows to soap operas (she was member of the cast of General Hospital).  There was even a June Havoc Show for a short time.  Her last film, funnily enough, was Larry Cohen's A Return To Salem's Lot in 1987 as Aunt Clara.  Finally, she was twice on Murder She Wrote, her last appearance coming in 1989.  Havoc was even by this time in semi-retirement on here complex in Connecticut and deeply involved in the building of that compound and using it for animals of all kinds in need.  She retired to her animal good works in New England.  She passed away there in Stamford (North Wilton) on the 28th of March in 2010 at the age of 97.  She was cremated and her ashes were scattered in her garden.  Note:  Sources often cite her birth year as 1913 or 1916, but she confirmed the correct year to be 1912.

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Born Today November 7: Dean Jagger

1903-1991

November 7 Columbus Grove, Ohio-February 5 Santa Monica CA.

There seems to be some confusion as to his birth name and not his place of birth.  The name is easily straightened out:  he was born Ira Dean Jagger as his grave site clearly states, not Dean Jeffries Jagger.  But whether he was born in Columbus Grove or Lima Ohio is still not known, with most sites states Columbus Grove.  He is buried in the small California town Hughson CA at the Lakewood Memorial Park

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Born Today November 6: Francis Lederer

1899-2000

November 6 Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary--May 25 Palm Springs, CA, USA

Lederer was born Frantisek Lederer in Prague in what was then Bohemia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now the capital of the Czech Republic) into a modest home and a Austrian German speaking family, where his father was a leather merchant.  He had a number of small jobs when he was a young man, including working in a department store in various capacities--mostly as a delivery boy.  He fell in love with acting at a young age.  He eventually found himself studying at the Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Prague.  Before he was able to make his debut on the public stage, he went into service in the Austro-Hungarian Imperial army during World War I.  When his service was up, he made his debut as a walk-on, and there after toured with a company around central Europe.  He became a matinee idol and eventually graduated to more sophisticated roles, including Shakespeare.  This took up most of his life during the 1920's. Because of his good looks, it was not surprising that he was eventually lured into film work, making his film debut in Refuge in 1928 as Franz Lederer.  He was brought into the project by the star of the film Henny Porten and her husband who was a producer.  The film was directed by Carl Froelich.  He next appeared in the German Die seltsame Nacht der Helga Wangen that same year, which was produced by Germany National-Film, already showing signs of the propaganda machine that it would became under the Nazi regime.  He next landed a part in a film to be directed by G. W. Pabst (a student of Froelich's) that was much more main stream and crossed continents.  The film was the nearly two hour long Pandora's Box (1929) starring Louise Brooks.  This was a breakthrough moment for him; it marked the first time that he was taken on his acting merits in the press.  He had several small roles after this, but his turn in German language all sound Atlantik marked him as a very bankable actor and he subsequently became a talent in demand in Europe. (Atlantik, by the way, was the continental version of it's sister production in the US Atlantic --the story of the Titanic's sinking fictionalized, the French version Atlantis came out in 1930 and, just to have all bases covered, there was also a silent version; the whole was under the direction of German director Ewald André Dupont.)  His transition to sound was eased greatly by his stage experience.  In addition to his work in European cinema, Lederer still worked heavily on the stage.  In 1932 he made his Broadway debut in play that had become a hit on the London stage.  The play toured major cities in the U.S., eventually making it's way to Los Angeles.  His performance brought him numerous offers for Hollywood film roles.  It was with reluctance (some at least) that he accepted work in Hollywood; he would later cite the political unrest in Europe as his major reason for doing so.  As a result, he was acted in his first film in the United States in 1934 in Man Of Two Worlds a film in which he stretchingly plays an "Eskimo" (Inuit) in a story loosely (very loosely) based on a true story.  This would be his first film appearance since 1931.  His billing in the film is when "Frances Lederer" was first used.  His star and fame rose quickly in the U.S., prompted in no small part by his looks (Americans love a pretty boy!), but he also possessed a prodigious acting talent.  By 1939, he had become an American citizen.  Throughout his acting career, he never fully gave up the stage and at one point was a student of Elia Kazan's in New York.  By the late 1930's he had expanded the his role types from romantic lead to other more demanding parts, even becoming a go to villain.  In 1950, he made his television debut in a episode of The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse.  This started a long career of appearing on "the small screen."  In fact it would be a television appearance on the horror/fantasy anthology Night Gallery that would be his last acting job.  He appeared in A Question Of Fear/The Devil Is Not Mocked in "The Devil Is Not Mocked" portion of the episode playing "The Count"--reprising his turn as Count Dracula from the 1958 The Return Of Dracula.  The episode dates from the 27th of October, 1971.  Lederer then retired from acting and retreated to his unique estate, also a working ranch (the house and surroundings are a national landmark still in the his family).  He wasn't completely away from the business however.  His ranch was used as a filming location several times and he also taught acting.  Many famous actors also boarded their horses at his stables.  He became deeply involved with his community as well.  Lederer was said to have been working on his horse ranch up to 1 week before his death at the age of 100.  He passed away on the 20th of May in the year 2000.  At the time, he was one of the last World War I veterans, though after the war took the life of his older brother, he had become a pacifist--a stance that later led him into activism.  He was interred the Cathedral City location of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

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Theda At A Costume Party! Happy Halloween Everyone!

This is a photo of Theda Bara with film director hubbie Charles Brabin many years after she quit acting at "fancy dress party," given by Basil Rathbone.  Here is the US, of course, we call it a costume party.  It wasn't held on Halloween however; the event took place on 19 April 1938.  Still great Halloween photo too!  Found on The She Devil live journal--no further information could be found on who took the photo.  Would be really cool if it was Rathbone himself!

Silent Horror Montage

I stumbled on this on YouTube this morning--wonderful Montage from 4 silent horror films, two by Melies from 1896, one my Chomon from 1908 and quite a lot from the the truly demented Swedish/Danish film Haxan:  Witchcraft Through The Ages, by Danish born director Benjamin Christensen (for more information watch it over at YouTube).  Happy Halloween!!  Oh, and Feliz Dia de la Brujas to folks in down Mexico way!

Here is a link to my own photo tribute to Haxan from Halloween two years ago.

Name The Actor

Born Today October 28: Elsa Lanchester

1902 (London, England)-1986 (Los Angeles US)

 

People know Elsa Lanchester as the "Bride of Frankenstein," especially at this time of year, so near Halloween, when there is a lot of screening of classic Universal Monsters films. But Elsa got her start in films in the late 1920's when she herself was in her 20's.  She was born Elsa Sullivan Lanchester in the Lewisham area of London on this day into a "Bohemian" family. Her surname was take from her mother, with her middle name being the surname of her father, because her parents formally refused to legally marry.  She had one older brother five years her senior who also went into performance, albeit it a puppeteer & marionette company owner:  Waldo Sullivan Lancnester.  Elsa was schooled in Paris up until the start of World War I under Isadora Duncan.  She was then sent off to a domestic boarding school to teach dance; she was only 12 years old at the time. Her desire in life was to become a classical dancer, a dream that was not to be. She instead started her own nightclub act, singing and dancing revivals of Victorian ballads.  This would be her gateway into theatrical work. She made her film debut in 1925 in the melodramatic comedy The Scarlet Woman: An Ecclesiastical Melodrama, a student film made completely for the fun of it. The film was written by and featured Evelyn Waugh--the writer of Brideshead Revisited and was a friend of Lanchester (and with whom she shared a birthday); though completely an amateur effort, it brought some attention to the participants, Lanchester including.  Her first professional film appearance came in 1927 in the T. Hayes Hunter directed One of the Best.  She appeared in four films in 1928, in the one major production--The Constant Nymph--she went uncredited, but the other three was rather special. She appeared as "herself"--or rather "Elsa" in three short films written especially for her by H. G. Wells himself. The Tonic, Day-Dreams, and Blue Bottles were all comedy shorts and placed into script form by one of Wells' sons Frank.  All of these films were silent, but her last film appearance of the decade was in a DeForest Phono sound film Mr. Smith Wakes Up, another comedy short and released in February of 1929; it was based on a radio play penned by Vivian Tidmarsh. The 1920's were also a decade of other performance successes for Lanchester. For starters, she made several appearances on the serious London stage ("High Theater"); it was in one of these productions that she met future husband Charles Laughton, with whom she had a long and contentious marriage. She also was signed by Columbia to go into the recording studio to cut some records--the first of which was released in 1926.  Lanchester passed away at the age of 84 on Boxing Day (December 26) of 1986 in her adopted home town of Los Angeles. She was cremated and her ashed were scattered over the Pacific Ocean.

You might know her better as....

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Born Today October 14: Lillian Gish

1893-1993

Just a bare basics here today.  She was a giant in silent movie era and is known as "The First Lady Of American Cinema."

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New York Times Obit.

Born Today October 13: Irene Rich

1891-1988

Born Irene Francis Luther in Buffalo, New York into a well off family, but when the father suffered of "reversal of fortune," this sent the family off looking for opportunities; first to a mining town Idaho, then settling on Spokane, Washington. [It is often reported that the family went to California, they never lived there.]  While living out west, she married a young traveling salesman in 1909, after reportedly hearing that her parents where talking about sending her to boarding school.  The marriage produced one daughter named Frances, and the young family moved to the Bay Area around San Francisco; they were divorced after two years of marriage.  She next married Charles Henry Rich, a lieutenant in the US Army; she had one daughter with him, Martha, and he adopted Frances, giving her and her daughter the last name--hence her stage name.  This marriage lasted 4 years.  Irene then entered studies for and went into real estate to support her two daughters; she eventually ended up in Hollywood in 1918.  She was 27 years of age.  Her first work, like so many untrained actors in the 1910's came as an extra.  Her first appearance on the "Silver Screen," came as in that capacity in 1918 in A Desert Wooing.   Her first credited role came that same year in The Girl In This House (yet another lost film).  She eventually went to work (at least part time) for Will Rogers starting in 1920.  This working relationship with Rogers lasted into the talkies.  She was often cast in roles as a society type-- in regards to the Roger's pairing it was the perfect foil for some of Roger's "simple Oakie" type characters.  In the 1930's she took to the radio and became a very popular character there; while continuing to act in what was by then full sound films.  Clearly, she had significant voice talent.  She also took to the stage a couple of times in the 1930's as well.  Her last appearance film came in 1948:  Joan Of Arc.  Her last appearance in any acting role came in 1949 with her only television appearance The Chevrolet Tele-Theater.  

Rich in very late Vamp look in the 1920's

Irene Rich died of heart failure in Hope Ranch, California on the 22nd of April 1988 though some sources cite that are ashes were interred in Calvary Cemetery, Los Angeles, the cemetery says that her ashes were scattered in an unmarked location within the property.  Her daughter Frances Rich followed her mother into film acting briefly in the 1930's, before quitting to become a sculptor.